It pays off to plan
ahead as much as possible. Valerie and I
got Stockholm passes for $115 that granted us public transportation and access
to the main attractions. This was totally worth it, especially considering how
many mistakes we made trying to get from Point A to Point B. We would have paid for a lot of wrong busses
and probably walked a lot more! Public transportation in Stockholm is fantastic and everyone uses it. Also, the busses run on biogas! Even better. Using the busses and tunnelbana was a very good
lesson in navigation. I don’t have the
most reliable internal compass but mapping our routes is excellent practice in
directionality. Another plus to this Stockholm Pass was being able to see all the museums we wanted, planning whatever looked
interesting in common areas. Not all the museums we went to were very
interesting, even ones we most wanted to see, but some of the places we had not
planned on visiting initially ended up being the best.
We stayed at the Acco Hostel for about $60 a night for the
both of us. We stayed in a double bunk bed room that was pretty small. The
first night we shared it with a Ukrainian man named Alex who was probably 65
years old and in Stockholm for an origin of life conference. He was hard to
understand but friendly. A little too friendly, actually. The second night we
were joined by a Swedish guy named Simon whose apartment was being renovated
for water damage and would be living in the hostel for 3 months. Ouch.
The hostel had lockers and a luggage room; it was pretty
safe and had many rules. There was a kitchen where we made meals and stored
food. The common bathrooms weren’t bad but sometimes it was not the cleanest. I would recommend earplugs for light sleepers;
snoring roommates in close quarters can really put a damper on your sleep
possibilities. Also, the employees at
the hostel would basically unlock your door, knock and immediately enter in the
mornings to check who is in the room. A little rude, but they were trying to
keep tabs on who was sleeping in their hostel so I’d let it slide. We
researched a lot of different places trying to find a safe, clean place that didn’t
cost a lot. I’d say that went well overall.
In terms of meals we only really bought one at a bar the
whole trip. Otherwise, we bought groceries for sandwiches, snacks, and of
course we had ramen noodles. Useful trick: crack an egg in your ramen, suddenly
it’s a whole new level of delicious. Add veggies, even better. I bought a
thermos for 5 euros in Finland; worth every penny! Valerie and I had many meals
on benches in parks, courtyards, overlooking the water and we thought this was
one of the best parts of the trip. I think our total for food spending on the
trip was about $35-40 each for 4 days.
As I mentioned in the last post, we cut the price of our ferry trips to and from Stockholm by over 50% simply by calling for a student discount. We wanted the early bird discount too, but for some reason we couldn't get it. As for our Stockholm Passes, we got a 15% rainbow discount on those by booking through a gay tolerance website. Not hating pays off, people! Plan ahead and seek discounts where you can.
When I was drawing up my budget for my whole four-month
European adventure my Dad laughed, not at all convinced my plan would stick.
I’m proud to say I’m currently under budget, eating well and plans for traveling
after Finland are looking within my projected numbers, too. Did I mention most of my Christmas shopping
is done? My budget success so far is not, however, for lack of trying.
Traveling is not cheap but if you set aside time to plan, think realistically
about the cost of necessities and are willing to sacrifice some luxuries for
chronic awkwardness and sack lunches… you might just be able to scrape together
some change for a beer at the end of the day. And maybe a haircut in Stockholm
you didn’t really need. But when it’s all said and done, you can’t put a price
on the experiences you have exploring a foreign place, the people you meet, or
what you learn along the way.
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| Bell pepper! |
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| Tuna and crackers on a bus |
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| The best 5 euros I've ever spent was on my thermos! |
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| 7 euros and 30 cents worth of recyclables! |
